Tape transmitter



March 10, 1942. l; .R DOTY 21,275,615

TAPE TRANSMITTER,

Filed Nov. 1959 2 sheets-snee; 1

Flam. f4

NVE-NTOR BY W ATTQRN Y TAPE TRANSMITTER Filed NOV. 9, 1959 2 SheetS-Sheeb 2 'ATTRNEY Patented Mar. 10, 1942 TAPE TRANSMITTER Charles R. Doty, Yonkers, N. Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Appncation November 9, 1939, serial No. 303,527V

3 Claims.

This invention relates to tape transmitters and, more particularly, to high speed tape perforating attachments for power driven typewriters and the like.

It is the general object of the instant invention to provide an improved high speed tape perforating apparatus which may be operated from the keyboard of an ordinary power operated typewriter. y

More specically, it is the object of the invention to utilize the power available in the movement of certain of the elements oa power driven typewriter to operate a combinational tape perforating and spacing unit at high speed.

Other objects of the invention will be pointed out in the following description and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which disclose, by way of example, the principle of the invention and the best mode, which has been contemplated, of applying that principle.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a sectional viewof the entire apparatus showing the typing and punching mechanism and the interconnecting parts.

Fig. 1a shows the upper portion of a type bar with its associated platen and record strip therebetween.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken at 2-,2 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a detail view in section of the drive mechanism for spacing and perforating the tape taken along the line 3,-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken at 4-4 of Fig. 3 showing the drive clutch in detail.

The apparatus comprises broadly a typewriter and a punch and interconnecting members for causing the operation of the punch elements under the control of the typewriter keyboard to perforate a tape for various purposes such, for example, as in the operation of a transmitter. Provision is made for intermittently spacing the tape, i. e. between punching operations. The typewriter may be of any convenient type but, for purposes of illustration, a power driven typewriter known as the Electromatic, the principles of which are disclosed and described in detail in United States Patent No. 1,777,055, forms the operating means in the invention herein disclosed. In view of the detail description in the aforementioned patent, a brief explanation of the Referring now to Fig. l, any suitable means may be provided to rotate power roller IIJ, in

the direction indicated by the arrow, which is,

adapted to cooperate with two rows of cam units arranged in the front and rear of the roller. Cam Il is arranged to be pivoted on one arm of a bell crank lever`|2 which is, in turn, pivoted in the frame of the typewriter as indicated generally by reference character I3, the other arm of said bell crank lever being operatively connected with an arm of bell crank lever I4 by means of link I5. Another arm of the said lever I4 is connected to the type bars I6 in a well known manner, so as to effect operation of the type bars or any other suitable means connected to the bell crank levers upon selective operation of the controlling key bars Il. The operation of the type bars effects printing on a record sheet S placed between bars I6 and a platen 20.

The pivoted bell crank lever I2 is operated by the associated cam Il whenever the latter engages the driven rollers; the engagement of the cam with the roller is controlled byV means of the associated control key bar Il in a manner which will now be briefly described.

The cams occupy normally the positions shown in Fig. 1. In this position the impeller-arm I8 is urged, by the associated coil spring I9, against one of the impeller-lugs 29, which at the time is in the lower position, and tends to turn the cam II in a clockwise direction. This is prevented, however, by the engagement of-one of the detents 2| on the cam, with the upper stop lug 22 on the stop lever 23. If, however, the corresponding key bar is operated, the bifurcated lower end of extension arm 24 associated with one of the said key bars I1 engages an arm 25 at the upper end of the stop lever 23 which is provided with an offset projection at its end which extends laterally through an opening in the bell crank lever I2.` The arm 25 of the stop lever 23 isthen swung rearwardly, or to the left as viewed in Fig. 1, about the pivot 26 and its lower end forwardly or to the right as viewed in this iigure, thus releasing the cam, which then turns under the influence of the spring urged impeller-arm IB. In doing so the upper serrated lobe of the cam is brought into engagement with the power roller, which turns in a counterclockwise direction and therefore causes a continued rolling movement of the cam until the high point has been reached and passed. This causes the whole cam unit to swing around the pivot I3 so as to pull down the corresponding link and actuate one of the type bars or any other mechanism with which the cam unit may be connected.

After the high point of the cam is passed, 'the cam loses Contact with the roller,`but the said impeller-arm I8 tends to continue the rotation position, this lug 28 disengages the detent, wherel upon the impeller-arm rotates the cam slightly, and the said detent then engages the upper stop lug 22.

It is obvious then that depression of a key bar releases the revolubly mounted cam to engage and be actuated by the power roller in turn perating the associated bell crank lever and its attached links to cause the associated mechanism such as type bars I6 and other operating mechanisms to be operated. It is to be understood that an individual cam unit is provided for each type bar or other functional mechanisms associated therewith.

The action of the cam mechanism has been described with respect to one of the rear bank of Ycam units; in the case of those of the forward bank the operation is analogous but the directions of movement and the order of operation of the stop lugs is reversed. For example, if the= depressed, in a manner now to be described in detail. Upon operation of one of the cams I Ia,

roller 32a is shifted to the right against projecward movement of its associated slider 30, a simple reversing method is employed. Projection 33 is, strictly speaking, an arm which extends down below theassociated slider and which yhas operatingconnectionwith a fork-like downward extension 36 of the slider. Arm 33 is located adjacent slider 30 in a groove 34 of rod 35, and is bifurcated arm 24a is positioned to engage the arm 25a at the upper end of stop lever 23a by virtue of operation of the associated key bar. the said arm is positioned rearwardly or to the left as viewed in Fig. l, and the lower end of the stop lever 23a is moved forwardly, that is, to the right as viewed in the said figure. This said operation is eilective to release the cam, by virtue of positioning the lower stop lug 28a out of the path of detent 2Ia, thus permitting the springurged impeller-arm IBa to rotate the cam slightly in a, clockwise direction to effect engagement of the lower lobe of camI II and power roller I0. Upon completion of a half revolution of the cam II, the second detent 21a engages rst the upper stop lug 22a while the stop lever 23a is in an operated position, but upon release of the associated key .bar and 'the return of the said stop lever to normal position, this lug 22a disengages the said detent and the impeller-arm rotates the cam slightly so that the said detent arranged for pivotal movement about the rod so that as the upper end of the arm is carried to the left, the lower part of the arm is caused to move to the right, thus imparting rightward movement to the slider, The reversingmethod is applied to alternate sliders as illustrated in Fig. 2. Rod 35 acts as a sliding support for the left end of the sliders 3|) and a similar rod 35a serves to support the right end. The ends of the sliders are bifurcated so as to provideV for a slidable fitting in grooves 34 and 34a of rods 35 and 35a respectively. Individual springs 31 lend a leftward bias to each of the sliders 30, taking up the clearance between the bifurcated left end of the sliders and the contour of the grooved portions 34 of rod 35 under normal conditions.

Tab portions, designated in Fig. 1 as I, 2, 3, 4, 5 and U, are Aformed on the under side of the sliders 30 according to any convenient permutation system. In other words, each slider will be shown), so that when encountered by any of the ate the associated type bar I6 or any other mechanism associated therewith.

In addition thereto, vthe bell crank levers are provided with arms 3|, 3Ia depending therefrom and on which are rotatably mounted individual cam rollers 32, 32a, which are displaced whenever the associated bell crank levers I2, I 2a are actuated by the released cams II, I I a. The cam rollers 32, 32a are located so as to be adapted to position or displace a plurality of slidablle members 30 whenever the said rollers are displaced by virtue of upwardly extending projections 33, 33a of the members which engage with the rollers.

The movement of the above described cam unit is thus utilized to selectively operate a plurality of sliders 30 to condition a permutation means,

in accordance with the particular typewriter key tabs U, I, 2, 3,-4, 5, clockwise rotation of the individual bails so encountered is eiected. The

downwardly extending portions of the bails arel each provided with a spring 40 which imparts a counterclockwise bias to help maintain the parts in the normal position as shown. Other individual springs 39 are connected from the lower tip of the bails to interposer bars 5I to 56 (Fig. 2). Thus, upon operation of any of the hails the interposers areurged to the left as viewed in Fig. l.

Since the operation of all of the interposers is the same, interposer 54 will be taken as an example. Interposer 54 has a downwardly extending projection 54 which operates against an arm 61 so as to rotate the arm in a counterclockwise direction about its pivot point 58. This arm extends downwardly and forms a latching lever for clutching pawl 59 (Fig. 4). As arm 51 is rotated, pawl 59 isreleased to permit engagement of the internal ratchet 60 of clutch member 6I .by engaging member 62. The engaging member 62 of the clutch is normally springrotate with the gear and cooperate with the Geneva element 69 carried by a tape spacing wheel 10. Wheel is provided with protruding pins 1I which are adapted to t through holes in the tape punched there upon each operation of a typewriter key.

Gear 65, upon rotation, causes rotation of crankv connected to a motor plate 14 which is pivoted to the framel of the punch at a point 16. Interposers 5I to 56 are arranged to extend to the left beneath the motor plate 14 and over a row of punch elements 15. Each of the interposers has a corresponding punch element 15. With the interposers 5I to 56 in their normal positions, the downward movement of motor plate 14 is ineffective to operate any of the punches 15, because only a thin projection of the interposers lies beneath the motor plate.- However, this condition does not exist in practice, because in order for the motor plate to be operated the clutch must be tripped and that only occurs upon operation of interposer 54. Interposer 54 is operated every it on top of the associated punch elements 15 to perforate the Atape T. f As gear 64 with its cam element 61 and pin 66 continue their rotation, and after the punch operating arm 13 has moved down to perforate the tape and suihciently upward to allow the punch 15 to be raised clear of the tape by its spring 16, pin 68 engages any one of the slotted portions of the Geneva element 69 and causes this element to be rotated a predetermined distance. The leading portion of the tape is perforated at regular predetermined intervals so that thetape isengaged for feeding operations by pin1l of wheel 10. Only afew such perforations are necessary because, as soon -as certain of the punched holes reach the wheel 10, .the feeding operations continue automatically, since pins 1ll pick up certain of the holes just previously punched by one of the punch elements 15 which is reserved for feed hole punching. In order that this arrangement may be effective to pro-` duce the desired results, it is necessary that the time a typewriter key is depressed by virtue of .25

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification,

it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is: a

1. Apparatus for perforating a record strip comprising, in combination, a keyboard having a plurality of operable key levers, a plurality of punches and means for operating said punches to perforate said strip, a constantly rotating power means, a plurality of slides having tabs differentially positioned thereon according to a predetermined permutation code, each slide having a special tab portion in the same relative position as the other slides, means actuated under control of the keyboard upon each operation of a key-lever for positioning a related one of said slides directly with the operation of said lever, a

plurality of interposers controlled by the tabs on l the positioned slide forV selecting certain of the punches for operation, a clutch for connecting the punch operating means with the power means, and a special interposer actuated by the special tab portion of the positioned slide: for engaging said clutch to render the punch operating means effective to cause the selected punches to perforate the strip.

2. Apparatus for perforating a record strip comprising, in combination, a keyboard having a plurality of operable key levers, a plurality of punching devices and means for operating said devices to perforate said material, means for feeding said strip a predetermined amount between successive operations of said punching devices, a constantly rotating power means, a plurality of slides having tabs differentially posi-` tioned thereon according to a predetermined permutation code, each slide having a special tab i portion in the same relative position as the other slides. means actuated under control of the keyboard upon each operation of a key lever for positioning a` related one of said slides directly with the operation of said lever, a plurality of=inter posers controlled by the differentially positioned v tabs on the positioned slide for selecting certain sprocket wheel 10 be located at such a distance from the feed hole punch element that the pins 1I will coincide with the holes properly for the feeding of the tape by the Geneva. The remaining five punches are employed for perforating the tape according to the familiar Baudot five unit code to represent the characters.

When using a tape with feed holes prepunched over the entire length, it becomes unnecessary to use one of the punching elements 15 and, 'under these conditions it is also unnecessaryto provide any extension of interposer 54 beyond its operating projection 54'. However, in applicants proposed structure with4 the use of a simple punching element and a normal length interposer, an automatic tape feeding means is produced and the necessity of using a prepunchedtape is avoided with the exception noted above as to the of the punches for operation, a clutch for connecting the punch operating means and the feeding means with the power means, and a special` interposer actuated by the special tab portion of the positioned slide for engaging said clutch to render the punching means effective to cause the selected punches to perforate the strip and the feeding means effective following each punching operation to feed the strip.

3'. Apparatus for perforating a record strip comprising, in combination, a keyboard having a plurality 'of operable key levers, a plurality of punching devices andmeans forloperating said ,"devices to perforate said material, means including a Geneva drive mechanism for feeding said strip a predetermined amount between successive operations of said punching devices, a constantly rotating power means, a plurality of slides. having tabs differentially positioned thereon according to a predetermined permutation code, each slide having a special tabportion in the same relative position as the other slides, means actuated under control of the keyboard upon each operation of a key lever for positioning a related for operation, a clutch for connecting the punch 5 operating means and the feeding means with the power means, and a special interposer actu- A ated by the special tab portion of the positioned slide for engaging said clutch to render the punching means effective to cause the selected 10 punches to perforate the strip andthe feeding means effective following each punching operation to feed the strip, said Geneva drive mechanism being such that although the feeding means and the punch operating means are connected to the power means simultaneously, the record strip actually is fed .at a time subsequent to each operation of the punch operating means.

CHARLES R. DOTY. 

